Marketing Ideas for Thanksgiving Holiday Weekend

As the holidays get closer, it’s a time for businesses and nonprofits to get the biggest sales and donations they’ll receive all year. For many organizations, the revenue they generate in November and December can account for up to half of their revenue for the entire. So it’s an important time to have your campaigns nailed down.

One of the biggest shopping and donating weekends is Thanksgiving.

Traditionally, we’re familiar with Black Friday. But now there are specific sales holidays throughout the entire weekend: Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday, and Giving Tuesday.

We’ll go through what each of these days mean and some marketing ideas that you can implement. No matter what industry you’re in you can take full advantage of each of the sales holidays over Thanksgiving weekend.

Black Friday

Everybody knows Black Friday. It’s the day after Thanksgiving where every company usually has their biggest sales of the year, often running discounts on their entire store inventory.

If you sell goods, this is an easy one – offer discounts on most or all of your products. If possible, offer discounts of 20% or more to make customers feel like they’re getting a deal. You can also vary your discounts, offering steeper discounts of up to 50% or even higher on products that you need to clear or have a high margin or profit on.

If you sell services, you can do the same thing by offering discounts for purchasing services that day, even if they redeem it later.

Use the hashtag #BlackFriday for your social media marketing.

Small Business Saturday

Since Black Friday is often associated with big brands offering steep discounts, Small Business Saturday is an attempt to get shoppers to shop local and support their community’s small business.

If you’re an independent small business with a physical location, this is perfect for you. Offer discounts for people who walk in store.

If you sell products or services that are useful for small businesses, you can either offer discounts on those specific items, or offer discounts to small businesses in general. Doing a sale for small businesses is great for B2B brands.

Use the hashtag #SmallBusinessSaturday for your social media marketing.

Cyber Monday

With the growth of online businesses and stores, Cyber Monday encourages shoppers to buy online.

If you sell your products online, this is a great time to offer sales on items in your online store.

If you have a fairly large variety of products, another approach is to offer sales on products that relate specifically to tech, such as discounts on electronic devices.

Use the hashtag #CyberMonday for your social media marketing.

Giving Tuesday

After an entire weekend of sales, all promoting consumer spending, Giving Tuesday is an effort to return the attention back to the spirit of the holidays. People are encouraged to donate to their favorite nonprofits on this day.

If you’re a nonprofit, this is obviously your day. Encourage your supporters to donate on this day, along with sharing about your nonprofit with their friends.

But if you’re a business, you can still participate too. Run some campaign where you donate a portion of your sales from that day to a specific nonprofit. It’s a great way to still encourage purchases while also making a positive impact in your community

If you can even partner with a local nonprofit and let them know what you want to do, they can tell their supporters to shop at your business. Likewise, if you’e a nonprofit, consider reaching out to a local business and asking them to donate a portion of their sales. In return you would promote their business to your supporters. It’s a win-win for everyone.

How to Prepare for Each Holiday Sale

Plan out which holiday sales you want to participate in. If you’re going to do multiple, then make each one unique. For example if you’re participating in Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but offering 20% off on both days, there’s no incentive towards one or the other. Make them unique, such as offering 20% on all products on Black Friday, but 30% on online items on Cyber Monday.

Don’t just announce your sale the day of or even the day before. People often go in knowing where they want to shop and what they want to buy. Announce the sale of each at least a week or more in advance. Tell your audience multiple times, and on as many platforms as possible – on your website, social media, and email.

I’m Running a Sale of My Own

Of course, if I’m going to tell you about this holiday marketing campaigns, I should be doing them myself. So if your an individual freelancer, small business, or nonprofit, I’ve got some incredible deals for you.

On Small Business Saturday, you can get 50% off any of my services if you are a small business of 50 employees or less.

And on Giving Tuesday, you can get 60% off any of my services if you are a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit. And if you’re a business, I’ll donate 60% of the cost of any service to a nonprofit of your choice.

Get more info on the sales here, and start planning now to take advantage of these incredible deals!